The Jungle Book is a 2016 live-action CGI adaptation and remake of the Disney classic animated film.
THE STORY: After a tragedy leaves a young boy named Mowgli (Neel Sethi) living in the jungle and on the run from a ferocious tiger, he’s adopted by a pack of wolves and befriended by a kindly panther. However, when the tiger vows revenge on the boy, Mowgli chooses to leave the jungle to protect his new friends, looking to make his way to the nearest human camp, along the way meeting friends and enemies who shape his destiny.
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Justin Marks (screenplay), Rudyard Kipling (books)
Stars: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson
THE RUNDOWN: A gigantic box office hit praised by audiences and critics, The Jungle Book is a visually astonishing film that manages to balance realism and fantasy with some good ol’ fashioned movie-time fun, and while its dedication to that realism certainly hinders a bit of the cartoonish freedom its animated inspiration holds, it’s nonetheless a terrific family film. Aside from its raise-the-bar visuals, it truly wins the day with its performances with the likes of Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, and Bill Murray pouring in a ton of great energy into their animal characters. This is an impressive movie all around and proof (and success) enough to push Disney forward on its plan to remake other classic animated movies into live-action/CGI films, including The Lion King.
While the story is great fun and the voice acting even better, it’s the sensational visual effects that make this what to watch, its incredible attention to detail simply jaw-dropping.
Somehow, even as the animated film does it right, the live-action version makes the musical numbers pointless, making it feel a little false after establishing such great authenticity.
THAT MOMENT: Shere Khan (voiced by Elba) is a nasty piece of work, a Bengal tiger with vendetta in his blood. He’s vowed to kill Mowgli at the end of the dry season, which has the wolf pack and Bagheera (voiced by Kingsley), the black panther who’s been helping to take care of him since he was found, more than a little worried. Mowgli decides to leave the jungle and seek his own kind, taking Bagheera with him, though when Shere Khan ambushes them, Mowgli barely escapes and rushes further into the jungle where he meets even more danger, a gigantic ssssslippery python (voiced by Johansson) looking for a meal. It ain’t easy being on your own.
Fortunately, a big sloth bear named Baloo (voiced by Murray) happens along and rescues the boy just in time, taking him to his neck of the woods where the two bond in friendship as Mowgli learns about the bear’s easy lifestyle of hard-to-reach honey and of course, the bare necessities. Life is good once again.
A short time passes and Bagheera eventually finds Mowgli, angered that the boy hadn’t made his way to the man camp as promised. He’s further upset that he used ‘man tricks’ to help Baloo gather honey for the coming winter season, something he’s tried to dissuade the boy from doing, instead teaching him the ways of the animals. Upset with each other, they decide to get some rest at Baloo’s place and then leave in the morning.
However, something amazing happens in the night, which I won’t spoil, but proves to be a turning point for how both Baloo and Begheera see their little human friend. The two animals share an important purpose, and Baloo does something that hurts both him and Mowgli. Unfortunately, it’s right at this moment when the boy is kidnapped from the trees by a swarm of monkeys who take Mowgli deep into the woods to an ancient human stone temple at the top of a steep cliff. Inside, a king awaits.
With Baloo and Bagheera racing after the child, Mowgli is brought before the hefty hulk of King Louie (voiced by Christopher Walken), an enormous orangutan, ruling over a fearful population who offer him all their plunder. Even so, Louie feels he’s lacking one last treasure that will make his power absolute, the ‘Red Flower’ only the humans control. He believes since the boy is in fact a Man, he must already know how to make fire, after all, he’s seen plenty conjure and control it before. (Apparently in all the hordes of goodies the monkeys have stolen and brought to their king, no one’s managed to five-finger a lighter).
Either way, as Mowgli struggles with Louie, Baloo and Bagheera roll out their escape plan, which leads to all sort of monkey trouble as the king comes off his throne to hunt the boy after he runs into the catacombs of the ruins. In the crush of crumbling bricks and broken stone, Louie eventually reveals to the boy a secret his friends had held back, something that breaks the boy’s heart and ignites a furious passion within him, sending him running back into the jungle with his own thirst for revenge.
WHY IT MATTERS: To this point, Mowgli has shown himself to be innovative and imaginative but always under the gentle but firm paw of Bagheera, who only hopes to see the boy grow properly amid the other animals. There is a trust between them that is established right from the opening sequence (one that foreshadows the end), where the boy understands he his different but in need of direction and mentorship.
After thinking he’d lost Bagheera to Shere Khan, he found a different kind of inspiration in Baloo, who kindled the boy’s more human ingenuity, something Bagheera always suppressed. The two animals become two sides of the same coin, each with great impact on the child. It’s clear Bagheera and Baloo care for Mowgli, which is the reason why they hold back on telling the boy what they already know, though learning this from Louie has Mowgli feeling deeply betrayed.
There’s great symbolism in the monkey fight and King Louie’s crumbling temple, the structure meant to depict the foundation of trust formed by the panther, the bear, and the boy. Deep within it lies a false king who sits in darkness, shaded by the walls pressing all around him. Louie soon chases the boy out of the ruins and once into the sunshine, speaks what he knows, literally the truth coming to light. It’s at this moment when the entire temple topples, stone and brick hurdling in all directions like an avalanche, separating Mowgli from Bagheera and Baloo, metaphorically and physically.
It’s here were Mowgli makes his most profound choice, the film shifting from a chase to a hunt, carrying us into the last act where all things must collide, started in the dark chambers of a ruined temple. King Louie’s thirst for power signals his own demise and the secret he spills to a young boy on the run will change the jungle forever. It’s a great movie moment.